


The Loss of a Nation

by saracenknows



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 15:51:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16790005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saracenknows/pseuds/saracenknows
Summary: Peter went back to school and tried to remember how to be a child again.[Post-Prince Caspian character study]





	The Loss of a Nation

Aslan had told him that he could never come back, and Peter had wanted to scream at him. He wanted to say that it wasn’t fair, to make him carry so much and then force him back to being a child. On that slender frame the weight crushed him, and there was nothing he could do about it. How cruel to let him get used to his old body again, to let him settle back into childhood, only to thrust royalty on him once more and expect him to lead again.

The thing was that he could; Peter fell back into Narnia far more easily than he had settled back in his own world. His old armour was too big for him now, but even so it fit better than his school blazer, his sword was more comfortable in his hand than his pen. His body had not forgotten how to fight, his veins had not forgotten how it felt to have royal blood coursing through them, his heart had not forgotten the steady weight of the responsibility of a nation, and he shouldered it gladly. Only to have it taken away a second time.

He wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair, to give it all back only to take it away again. But Peter was a king, not a child (for now at least), and kings did not scream and did not shout. 

On the train, back in their own world again, he sat in silence. Edmund and Lucy talked quietly together, still in Narnia if only in their heads, with the promise of return on their fingertips. Susan stared out of the window in silence too, already thinking of different kingdoms entirely.

Peter went back to school and tried to remember how to be a child again. 

He traced his fingers over his skin, searching for scars that were no longer there. He had frowned a million times and smiled a million more, but there were no lines on his face to show it. His skin remained smooth and untouched and he hated it. He feared he would forget how to hold a sword. He feared even more that he would never get the opportunity to find out. 

Peter sat at his desk and studied Latin and thought of the languages he came to speak in Narnia. He learned Geography and ached for the mountains of Archenland, all the unmapped land he longed to explore. He read history and dreamed of battle. He carried the hearts of thousands in his chest.

The teachers talked of the solemn Pevensie boy; they didn’t understand that he was grieving for a nation.


End file.
